Grinnell College

Date: Oct 28 2004
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
My years at Grinnell were also years of great family strife, so I didn't (unfortunately) get to make the most of my time there. That said, I have found my investment of those years and that money to have made a phenomenal difference in my life. I write better and think more critically than most of my also-bright grad school colleagues. I'm still in touch with several professors who made such a difference in my life. Dorm life, believe it or not, was a lot of fun and largely free of pettiness, cattiness, in-fighting, or other "energy-sucks". And social life was more enjoyable than many of my friends who went to great big universities in great big towns. Not that we didn't long to get out of Grinnell, Iowa, from time to time…

The library is excellent: well-stocked with books, and has a fast interlibrary loan program from the U of Iowa if you need something they don't have. The buildings are great: airy and sunny classrooms in ARH, the new science center is awesome. Frequent, good, free movies; terrific parties (there's a saying that Grinnell students study hard most of the time, but know how to blow off and have a good time too!). When I was there, there were no cases of sexual harassment or date rape. I got along with my roommates in the years that I had them. In my majors (math and psych), my professors were uniformly outstanding. Even in freshman calc, the prof made it really interesting. The largest class I ever had was one intro-psych lecture section of 50-some. My junior and senior years, the largest class I had included 14 students. I got generous financial aid, and when the 'rents got divorced during one class year, they re-adjusted my aid—I left with under $4000 in loans, and the rest was scholarships and grants. Internships galore, great career center with many alum and friends-of-college contacts all over the world. I also had a chance to play a sport all four years and do very well, which I never would have been able to do at a larger university (a majority of students play a sport). The thing is, when I got admitted, the director told me that I was coming to a place where everyone else was as smart as I was. This turned out not to be true, which is actually a big plus. It's not that everyone at Grinnell is super-brilliant, it's that they're super-committed and dead serious about education, and for that work ethic I'm also supremely grateful. The tangible results—a diploma and college recognition—will serve you in the early post-Grinnell years. The intangibles—learning to work, think critically, and communicate purposefully and clearly—will allow you to rise beyond even what YOU think is possible for you now, and that's the best a college can do.